For months, the NCAA has said the House settlement would help fix college sports problems. But instead, many schools feel the situation has only gotten worse. Now the SEC is openly talking about creating its own rules and handling things itself. After Georgia’s athletic board meeting on Thursday, president Jere Morehead voiced his frustration. Yet again.

“If we don’t get federal legislation in my opinion, we’re going to have do this conference by conference because we can’t allow the wild west to continue any longer,” Jere Morehead said. “I’m prepared next week in Destin to be ready to vote on creating an SEC mechanism, SEC rules that we have to do if Congress isn’t going to act as they should. We just cannot continue down this current path. We have waited months after months for congress to act and it hasn’t occurred yet.”

The NCAA spent years trying to maintain centralized control over college athletics. But the longer NIL chaos drags on, the more the power conferences, especially the SEC and Big Ten, are starting to act like they no longer need the NCAA at all. Jere Morehead has been signaling this shift for months. 

Back in January during the NCAA Convention outside Washington, D.C., several conference leaders reportedly discussed moving forward independently instead of waiting for the NCAA or Congress to solve governance issues. Jere Morehead has now become one of the loudest public voices pushing that idea.

The House settlement was supposed to stabilize things. Instead, it created even more disparity around third-party NIL collectives and enforcement. Earlier this month, Jere Morehead didn’t even bother being subtle. 

“The House settlement has been nothing short of a disaster,” he told Yahoo Sports. “All the assurances from conference lawyers about this settlement solving any of our key issues have not materialized because of the loopholes around so-called third-party NIL deals.”

That’s Jere Morehead saying the system is broken beyond repair. His concern is that some schools are allegedly operating outside the reporting structure while others are trying to follow rules that barely exist. Uneven enforcement brings resentment especially when roster costs are exploding.

The SEC is watching payrolls climb into professional sports territory while simultaneously losing some of the dominance it once took for granted. Meanwhile, the Big Ten Conference has captured recent national championships with Michigan, Ohio State, and Indiana all making serious noise nationally.

That shift isn’t sitting well with the conference. Which is why next week’s SEC meetings in Destin could bring the answers to whether the NCAA will still hold control over college sports. And there’s another issue hanging over those meetings besides NIL governance and that’s the playoff expansion.

Jere Morehead says the 24-team format is a mistake

As if conference breakaway conversations weren’t enough, Jere Morehead also took aim at the growing push for a 24-team CFP format. The Big Ten’s push is gaining support from the ACC, Big 12, and Notre Dame. But the Georgia president believes college football is close to ruining what made fans excited for the regular season in the first place.

“A 24-team Playoff is a mistake,” he told The Athletic. “It’s going to devalue big games during the regular season. I think it’s going to devalue Georgia-Alabama or Georgia-Oklahoma next year. So I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Regular Saturdays matter because one loss can destroy a season. The SEC especially has built its TV dominance on the idea that every heavyweight matchup feels enormous. Jere Morehead fears a 24-team format turns college football into something closer to the NBA regular season which is entertaining, but not always urgent. He admitted he didn’t mind a 16-team format, although it’ll still come with a financial hit. 

“As long as [SEC] commissioner [Greg] Sankey is at 16, I think we’ll be at 16,” he said. “I’m not sure that the Big Ten has really thought through the long-term implications of what this is going to do to the regular season. Having said all of that, if the commissioner (said) it was time for us to do it, I’ll be with the commissioner. But I haven’t seen the evidence to support it yet.”

And if the SEC ultimately decides it wants its own governance model, or eventually even its own playoff, the rest of college football may not have much choice but to follow.